​Save Money and Help the Environment by Recycling Hotel Mattresses

Any hotel owner knows that mattresses don’t last forever. To ensure guest comfort, they need to be replaced on a regular basis.

Where do Hotel Beds go?

Most mattresses end up at the dump. An estimated 50,000 mattresses end up in landfills every day, according to the Mattress Recycling Council. “Getting rid of mattresses in a responsible way isn’t easy,” says the President of International Sleep Products. Most landfills don’t want old mattresses because they take up a lot of space, are difficult to crush, and often jam machinery.

However, there are third parties that will buy used bedding from retailers. This may be an effortless way of getting rid of old mattresses, but there are several disadvantages that come with this process. Most of these renovators just sew a cover over a used mattress, making no effort to properly sterilize the bedding, and then deceive customers into thinking they’re getting a brand-new mattress.

The solution is to recycle old mattresses, which is a responsible way of disposing of used bedding and also conserves resources. The Hilton hotel chain began recycling mattresses in 2012, and since 2015 the program has kept nearly 1 million pounds of waste out of landfills. 95% of each mattress, box spring and bed frame recycled by Hilton are turned into new products.

During 2017, Hilton did a hotel-wide mattress recycling at their property in Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. This resulted in 2,725 mattresses and box springs being recycled within a month, which also stopped a total of 187,230 pounds of waste from entering landfills.

How can recycling a hotel mattress help?

Recycling hotel mattresses can produce new materials in several diverse ways, USA Today says. Soft commodities such as foam and fiber are turned into carpet padding, pet bedding, insulation, pillow stuffing, mats, and oil filters. Metal and box springs are sold to steel mills where they are used in tools, construction materials, and car parts. Cotton is recycled to make linen papers and oil spill containment. Recycled wood is used to make flooring, wood pallets, mulch, compost, and pressed wood.

“You never know, you could be walking on a floor or sitting in a car made with parts of a mattress from a Hilton property you once stayed at,” says Randy Gaines, Hilton executive.

Not only is recycling hotel mattresses good for the environment, it is good for a hotels budget. Since landfills are taking less and increasing their prices, it’s becoming less expensive to recycle.